What Cecil Baldwin Doesn't Remember
by sherlocked98
Summary: Simply my headcanon on how Cecil came to be in Night Vale. Ficlets to ensue
1. Chapter 1

Theres a county, in Texas, called collingsworth county. It's right on the edge of the Texas panhandle, where you can be in a busy town full of tech and business and the next moment be in the endless plains of the panhandle.

In collingsworth, there's a town called Lutie. It's population at the time was loosely 125 people. Now theres a bit more, but we haven't gotten to now yet, and by the time we do, Lutie will be forgotten.

In 1982 a man named Geoffrey fell in love with a pretty blond woman named Cecilia. Geoffrey straight up told her he loved her, and they were married the next year. And they were very happy.

Geoffrey had a good job with an electrical company, and Cecilia co-ran a fairly popular bakery on the outskirts of town. They began to bicker after the firt two years of their marriage, and though it never went too far, they decided to take the next step and have a child to raise.

In 1988 they had a baby boy. Cecilia was very fond of family names and suggested they name him after his father, but Geoffrey insisted they never name a child Geoffrey, as it was hard enough hearing it.

So the boy was named after his mother. Cecil.

Cecil was a normal child, with a big heart and eyes for his father. He looked up to his dad and told him daily he was going to grow up and make computers just like him. Geoffrey couldn't be happier.

Cecil however, didn't have a single friend except for his dane/lab mix. The kids didn't like him because he didn't play sports or like to do group activities. And Cecil didn't much care, as he had his parents and dog for friends.

Until the second grade, when he was seven, he realized that parents aren't meant to be your only friends. and dogs are good but you can talk to them.

And Cecil's heart fell. He'd severed any chances of friends.

But of course there's always someone.

Nancy was a seven year old girl who amazed Cecil on the spot due to her pink hair. Nancy took a liking to him also, and since no one else's parent lets them talk to her due to her hair, they became friends.

Cecil actually began to be more open, and began to play some sports. He and Nancy both began to be more outgoing, and by the end of the year, cecil and Nancy had eleven friends.

So what makes this story to interesting? Where does it go from here?

It's all very sudden.

Theres a river, called the Salt Fork Red River. It runs through the Texas panhandle for a stretch, and pases through just south of Lutie.

Cecil, Nancy and their friends would go down there a lot, and play or wade or swim, escaping the summer and spring heat. Of course some parts of the river were deadly, but they always made sure to stay clear of these areas.

So one day on august 28th of 1998, when Cecil was ten, he and Nancy found the river to be flooded and running terribly fast. Cecil opted they leave, and Nancy agreed.

But her footing was off, and she slipped, and fell off the overhang before Cecil could even turn around. Cecil whipped around just in time to see her be engulfed by the muddy overflowed water with a piercing scream.

Horrified Cecil screamed her name over and over until her body re-appeared on the surface, with a gash across her face, and her pink hair full of leaves. He screamed her name but she was carried away in seconds.

Her body was recovered two days later, and Cecil attended her funeral the following week.

Cecil was emotionally scarred, as that was nothing anyone, let alone a ten year old should have to go through. He became distant to even his parents, dropped out of school, and just read books. Every once in awhile he would go down to the river and stare at it coldly. But Nancy never came back.

He loved Nancy as a friend, but he made it clear to her since the beginning of their relationship he didn't like girls. And she had been accepting of it.

But she was simply irreplaceable.

So that brings us to the worst night of Geoffrey and Cecilia's lives.

The day Cecil went missing.

He didn't come home one night after going to the river, and they immediately called the police. A week long investigation took place and all of Lutie was questioned.

They found tire tracks near a dangerous part of the river on the seventh day of the investigation, and since they had nothing else to go on, it was said that he was abducted. This was true.

Cecil stood by the river, and was taken so quickly, he barely had time to kick or scream. And though he doesn't remember it, or any of this story, he had never been so terrified in his life.

He was put in a four walled room without a door or window, but it wasn't too dark.

People were always showing up in the room, simply to sit in a chair and talk to him. Cecil begged them to take him home, but they just chuckled like he was cute and kept talking. They told him strange things about angels, and hooded figures, and monsters, and the nonexistence of things he knew to exist.

After a while Cecil stopped begging them. He just stared and listened to them.

Soon they began telling him about his life. Except everything they told him was fake. He used to call them out on this, but eventually, after months of sitting in this room, he just let them tell him. The lines of reality and fiction blurred, until anything they said he just accepted.

After six months, they began asking him stuff about himself. He answered everything according to what they had told him about himself. And he was taken to a different bigger room with no doors or windows, and people brought him tech and computers and equipment to play with and practice with. And he took to it naturally, as he already knew a good amount from his dad. But he didn't remember his dad.

He wasn't aware of much time passing but Cecil was kept in that room for five years of his life, until he turned sixteen.

Cecil was not the same person anymore. He was odd, his formerly brown eyes were much lighter and had a purplish tint, he had perfect posture, and when he spoke everyone would stop and listen to him immediately.

He was finally let out, into what looked like a town, and he acted as though he'd seen it a million times. He was lead to a building that said "NVCR" across the doorway. He was lead inside and over to a recording booth, and as if he did this everyday, he set it all up and got it running.

Cecil placed the headphones on his head and flipped a switch so that the "ON AIR" light lit up.

"Look to the sky, then, look away. And never look again. Welcome to Night Vale."


	2. A stranger

**A/N: I didn't have time for edits with school and all. Bear with me. **

The desk vibrated as Cecil's phone buzzed. Cecil ignored it as he continued to give out the last annoucements.

". . .So if you want Pizza, better not go to the burnt down shell of Peter's Pizzeria. The last standing joint is now Rico's. No one does a slice like Big Rico. No one."

His phone buzzed more. Cecil finished his show and pushed his headphones off so that the fell onto the desk.

He grabbed his phone and scrolled through his texts.

Two new messages the screen read. The first of which was from a " "

Cecil, there will be another group of scientists arriving here tomorrow morning. If you want to be there to get anything for your show, then by law I have to let you. Go screw yourself.

-Mayor Pamela Winchell

"Aw, that's sweet of her to text me!" Cecil said delighted.

The second was from a "JERK JERK JERK" which he promptly deleted.

"Well that sounds like fun." Cecil said remembering the last time a scientist cam and got so worked up he pulled out a third of his beard and began to foam at the mouth. "Scientist are great fun."

Cecil Stood up and stretched and then walked over to a staircase and climbed the stairs slowly, walking up two flights even though there were only two stories. He walked up to a huge window, in front of which was a comfy purple chair. Cecil walked over and sat in it with a sigh and simply gazed out of the window over nightvale with adoration in his eyes.

He sat there all night and never showed any signs of just sat there.

At ten till six his phone buzzed and he leapt from his chair and walked back downstairs humming Buddy Holly tunes.

"Donovan!" Cecil yelled. A boy with sandy blond hair and an overall grumpy expression was just entering the building.

"What." He said frowning. "It's like six in the morning. Why do I have to be here."

"An interview. You'll take notes, won't you?" Cecil asked brushing off his shoulders for him. Donovan flinched. "Sure." he mumbled, turning and heading outside.

Cecil turned and knocked on station managements door twice.

"I need to go do an interview for the show. Is that okay?" Cecil asked. A letter shot out immediately,

It merely said "Granted" Cecil smiled and left the building, walking briskly down the sidewalk talking to Donovan who was determinedly ignoring his every word.

He finally saw. Mayor Pamela Winchell at the bus stop greeting many Scientists.

"Ah! There's the Mayor Winchell. Beat us again! She's a puntical thing, isn't she?" Cecil said. Donovan rolled his eyes.

Pamela spotted them and rolled her eyes as well.

"I believe some other people are here for an interview." She said almost apologetically. The team of ten scientists looked over at them, and some waved. Cecil waved back happily, grabbing Donovans arm to keep him up to pace.

Cecil went to shaking their hands. Three of them were girls, but other than that they were men. A blond, a ginger with a scottish accent, a bald black scientist, a scientist with curly hair that was pulled back into a long ponytail, a dark skinned scientist with lovely hair and glasses, a scientist with hair that hung over his eyes partially, and more. Cecil shook all of their hands before jumping into his questions.

"I'm Cecil, the towns radio show host. May I ask, where you come from?"

"Uh, hi, I'm Troy. We've been all over, really. . . we came from illinois just now, we were working on a crazy fish mutation." He said almost darkly.

Cecil frowned. "Fish?"

"Yeah," Troy repeated. "They had weird growths. It was nuts."

Cecil looked to the Mayor to Donovan confused.

"What are fish. . .?" He mumbled, though no one heard him.

"We have the charts on the growths if you want to see them," the curly haired scientist said.

"Uh. . . that all right. What brings you here, may I ask?" Cecil said moving on. The dark skinned scientist answered him.

"Hi, Carlos. We're here on reports of crazy things happening." He said pulling forth his clipboard and looking it over. "Things like missing children who reappear years later without aging, men in black hoods, unexplainable lights in the night, lots of crazy stuff." He said looking up at Cecil. "Have you noticed any of these?" Cecil blinked, "Yeah, I suppose. At least the children show up safe and sound. And the hooded figures don't bother anyone mostly. And the lights are truly spectacular some nights." Cecil said, a little mesmerized by the scientists dark eyes. Carlos frowned at him.

"That doesn't strike you as the least bit odd?"

"Well, sometimes the children come back without faces, and it's a little strange I suppose." Carlos blinked. ". . .What. . ."

"Oh my god, your tattoo moved." a short haired female scientist gasped. Carlos looked at an eye tattoo on Cecils arm. It's gaze shifted ever so slightly. Carlos exhaled softly. "Could I. . .?" Cecil held out his arm to him, confused.

Carlos examined the moving tattoo with wide eyes.

"That's incredible!" He said.

And Cecil fell in love instantly.


End file.
